Studio Classes in Berkeley ($2,000)

After completing the Level 1 Workbook, you can come to work with me in person here in my Berkeley studio. This level of instruction can’t be done remotely – I need to see how you interact with the materials, and spend some time 1-on-1 (the class size is very small). This is a key step in learning how to critique your perfume formulas. It is very important to understand what contributes to the essences burying or locking with each other; both effects can have either a positive or negative outcome in a perfume blend.

The class fees cover all materials, including the essences used. The topics include:
- filler & accessory notes
- natural isolates
- burying & locking
- using different forms of particular ingredients (absolute, concrete, extra, etc.)
- why top notes are so difficult
- final perfume = total lock
- scaling up your formulas using the Aftelier drop chart
- content & format for the student to teach a beginning solid perfume class

At the studio classes, I work directly with each student in making liquid perfumes. In the mornings, I lecture about specific essences and their unique capacities in a perfume, and we do some odor studies as a group. In the afternoons, students work on a specific perfume construction, sometimes based on the morning lectures, or sometimes dealing with a specific type of perfume, like a floral-floral, or a chypre. After each student has created a perfume, I constructively criticize the results, pointing to where the flaws are, and as importantly how to fix them. We evaluate the results again after the students have revised and remade the perfumes according. Examining the details of these very specific examples illustrates the broader general concepts, which improves each student’s ability to create beautiful perfumes.

Each student makes at least 5 perfumes to take home, but the goal is not to make great perfumes in class. The goal is for you to learn to critique your own designs, finding and fixing the flaws in your formulas. Every time you create a new perfume, there will always be new design problems. Learning natural perfumery with me is like studying painting at an art studio; my teaching focus is solely on the aesthetics, not on weights, scales, specific gravity, or how to run a business.

The Studio Classes are scheduled several times throughout the year, meeting for a long weekend (Friday through Sunday, 10-5 each day). The price for each 3-day session includes all materials. When you buy the Level 1 Workbook, your email address is added to the the list for announcing the class schedules. Each session is announced several months ahead by email, and then filled on a first-come basis. You will receive a Level 2 certificate of completion after attending 2 sessions, a Level 3 certificate after completing a total of 4 sessions, and a Master Level certificate after 8 sessions.